The Russia Connection

The Russia Connection

Congressman Eric Swalwell's "Trump's Ties to Russia"

The connection between the Trump campaign, and now administration, is long and complicated. This is not a complete list, and doesn’t yet include all the players, but helps to shed a little light on what has happened so far.

July 14, 2017: News breaks that two people not previously disclosed also attended the meeting with Donald Trump Jr., including a Russian-American lobbyist, Rinat Akhmeshin, who previously served in the counterintelligence agency with the Soviet Union.

July 11, 2017: Trump Jr. tweets screen shots of the email exchange that occurred between June 3-June 8, 2016 July 9, 2017: The New York Times prepares a story which reveals that the meeting in June of 2016 was intended to give the Trump Campaign damaging information on Hillary Clinton when Trump Jr. changes the story he’d given the day before. Trump Jr. acknowledges that the lawyer said she had damaging information, but that once it became clear she did not have the information, the meeting ended.

July 8, 2017:The New York Times reports on a meeting that occurred in June of 2016. The meeting involved Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. Trump Jr. explains the meetings as a “short introductory meeting,” in which they talked about the adoption of Russian children.

July 7, 2017: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov presents a different account of the meeting between Trump and Putin, saying “President Trump said he’s heard Putin’s very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government didn’t interfere in the elections and that he accepts these statements.”

July 7, 2017: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson states that the president, during the meeting with Putin, raised “the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

July 7, 2017: Trump meets Vladimr Putin during the G20 Summit, in a meeting that lasts two-and-half hours.

June 25, 2017: KellyAnne Conway gives an interview to ABC News, refuting that Trump had tapes of James Comey.

June 23, 2017: The president makes public statements on Fox & Friends, attempting to discredit Robert Mueller and the independent investigation, saying” I can say that the people who have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters. Some of them worked for Hillary Clinton. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous if you want to know the truth.”

June 20, 2017: In response to questions from reporters, Press Secretary Sean Spicer says he hasn’t talked to Trump, and doesn’t know if he believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

June 18, 2017: Jared Kushner’s lead attorney, Jamie Gorelick, issues a recusal statement, saying: “After the appointment of our former partner Robert Mueller as special counsel, we advised Mr. Kushner to obtain the independent advice of a lawyer with appropriate experience as to whether he should continue with us as his counsel.”

June 18, 2017: Jay Sekulow refutes Trump’s earlier Tweet that he is under investigation, stating on Meet the Press, “there is not an investigation of the President of the United States, period.”

June 16, 2017: Trump Tweets: “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.”

June 15, 2017: Vice President Mike Pence hires outside counsel to represent him in the Russian investigation.

June 15, 2017: The Washington Post reports that, “according to US officials familiar with the matter,” Mueller is investigating Jared Kushner’s finances and business dealings.

June 13, 2017: AG Jeff Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee and admits he met with Russian Ambassador Kislyak in April 2016, a previously undisclosed meeting. Sessions also confirms in his testimony that Comey had come to him with concerns about his meetings with Trump, asking that Sessions not leave him alone with Trump again.

June 9, 2017: The House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the White Houserequesting that any tapes the president has be turned over to the committee no later than June 23rd. The committee also requested James Comey’s memos.

June 8, 2017: Comey testifiesbefore the Senate Intelligence Committee, stating three times in different variations that the president lied.

June 7, 2017: Comey’s opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee is made available to the public the night before he scheduled to testify.

June 7, 2017: Coats and Rogersrefuse to commenton conversations they’ve had with Trump in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, provoking repeated questions from Democrats and Republicans on the committee as to whether the president invoked executive privilege, or they were simply refusing to answer.

June 1, 2017: The Senate Intelligence Committee says Comey will testify in closed and open hearings on June 8.

May 22, 2017:The Washington Post reportsthat Trump askedDNI Coats and NSA Director Rogers to “publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election” after former Director Comey testified in March.

May 19, 2017: The Washington Post reports, along with several other media outlets, that a senior White House adviser close to the president is now considered a significant person of interest by law enforcement into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign

May 16, 2017: Reports emerged that former FBI Director James Comey kept detailed memo’s on his interactions with Trump. In one encounter, Comey described an event where Trump asked the Attorney General and Vice President to leave the Oval Office, and spoke about the FBI’s investigation into Michael Flynn, asking Comey to “let this go.”

May 12, 2017: Trump sends several Tweets early Friday morning, including one that garnered a lot of attention, and drew immediate comparisons to Nixon. “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” He has since refused to discuss the tapes in media interviews.

May 10, 2017: Members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, and the public, call for a special prosecutoron Russia following Comey’s firing.

May 10, 2017: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visits the White House and jokes before the American press that he didn’t know Comey had been fired. Later, Trump meets with Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador in the Oval Office and bars the U.S. press from attending but allows Russian reportersto enter and take photos. Those photographs were later released, to the apparent surprise of the White House.

May 9, 2017: Trump fires FBI Director James Comey. The White House states that Trump did so upon Department of Justice recommendation, including a memo from Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein regarding Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe. In subsequent media interviews, Trump himself contradicts that version of events.

May 9, 2017: The Senate Intelligence Committee requests the financial information of Trump Associates’ from the Treasury Department. CNN also reports that Michael Flynn’s associates have received grand jury subpoenas.

April 21, 2017:CNN reports that Russian operatives tried to use Trump advisers to infiltrate the Trump campaign.

April 19, 2017:Reuters reports that a think tank linked to Putin hatched a plan to influence the U.S. election through rumors of voter fraud.

April 19, 2017:CNN reportsthat the FBI used the portions of salacious Russian dossier to secure a FISA warrant to monitor Carter Page, suggesting that at least portions of it have been corroborated.

April 12, 2017:The Washington Post reports that the FBI secured a FISA warrantto surveil Carter Page during the summer of 2016.

April 12, 2017: The Associated Press confirmsthat financial records show Paul Manafort’s firm received two wire transfers in 2007 and 2009. The transfers correspond to the now infamous Black Ledger that show Manafort allegedly received payments from Ukrain’s Party of Regions, headed by pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort’s spokesman says Manafort intended to register retroactively with the US Justice Department as a foreign agent for the work he had done on behalf of political interests in Ukraine through 2014.

April 6, 2017: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) recuses himselffrom the investigation into the possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia Texas Rep. Mike Conaway takes control of the Committee.

April 6, 2017: Senior Adviser to the president, Jared Kushner, acknowledged that he failed to report meetings with Russian officials during the campaign and transition. His attorney sighted it as an omission.

April 3, 2017:Court documents were releasedthat showed a Russian operative named Victor Podobnyy, who the US government charged for “acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government,” or a spy, cooperated with an individual named “Male 1.” On April 3rd, Carter Page identified himself in those documents as “Male 1,” acknowledging he passed documents to a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013.

March 30, 2017:The Wall Street Journal reportedthat Mike Flynn sought immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony before the congressional intelligence committees. Fynn’s lawyer released a statement, saying “Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should circumstances permit.”

March 30, 2017:The New York Times reported that two officials in the White House provided Devin Nunes the reports he briefed the press on showing that Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance. Nunes then reported to Trump directly without informing anyone on his committees.

March 30, 2017: The Senate Intelligence Committee held it’s first public hearing on the Russia investigation. One witness at that hearing, former FBI Agent Clint Watts stated, “Follow the trail of dead Russians…There’s been more dead Russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation who have assets in banks all over the world. They are dropping dead, even in Western countries.”

March 24, 2017: Carter Page and Roger Stone volunteer to be interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee at a yet to be determined date.

March 24, 2017: Rep. Devin Nunes held a press conference and announced that Paul Manafort had volunteered to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. Nunes subsequently cancelled the public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, March 28th, in which former interim Attorney General Sally Yates would have made her first public statements since her firing in January.

March 24, 2017:Yates’ lawyer writes to White House Counsel McGahn about Yates’ upcoming testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Her attorney notes that unless McGahn objects before 10 a.m. on March 27, Yates will appear and answer the committee’s questions.

March 23, 2017:In a letterto acting Assistant Attorney General Ramer, the lawyer for Sally Yates disagreed with the DOJ objections to Yates’ anticipated congressional testimony. Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools respondswith a letter characterized as an attempt to block Yates’ testimony by stating her testimony was “likely covered by the presidential communications privilege and possibly the deliberative process privilege.”

March 21, 2017: During the daily Press Briefing, Sean Spicer tells reporters that Paul Manafort “played a limited role” on the campaign “for a very limited amount of time.”

March 20, 2017: FBI Director James Comey confimed in a public hearing before the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI is investigating “ties” between the Trump team and the Russian government. The FBI Director and NSA Director Mike Rogers publicly refuted the claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped by President Obama.

March 20, 2017: House Select Committee on Intelligence will hold its first public hearing on the Russian probe.

March 19, 2017: The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked Trump adviser Roger Stoneto preserve all records that could be related to any subject under the committee’s investigation into Russia.

March 14, 2017: The Chair and Ranking member invited Sally Yates to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing on March 28th.

March 10, 2017: Trump campaign surrogate Roger Stone admitted that in August 2016 he had sent direct and private messages to Guccifer 2.0. Stone described the contact as “completely innocuous.” “It was so perfunctory, brief and banal I had forgotten it.”

March 8, 2017: Nigel Farage, a former campaign surrogate and leader of the “leave” campaign during the British referendum, was seen walking out of the Embassy of Ecuador in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assangehas maintained sanctuary since 2012. Farage was asked as he stepped out of the building what he doing there, and responded, “I can’t remember.”

March 8, 2017: Politico reports that an operative with ties to Russian intelligence, Konstantin Kilimnik, met with Paul Manafort during an April trip to the U.S. Kilimnik now admits that he played a key role in gutting a proposed amendment to the Republican Party platform that would made the U.S. take a harsher stance against Russia in support of Ukraine.

March 1, 2017: The Washington Postreports that Sessions did speak with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak while acting as a campaign surrogate, despite testifying under oath to contrary.

Feb. 28th, 2017:The White House Counsel’s office instructed Trump’s aides to preserve documents and communications related to the Trump-Russia investigation, 10 days after the Senate Intelligence Committee ordered the White House preserve those communications,according to a March 1 report by the Associated Press

Feb. 28th, 2017:According to The Washington Post, the FBI prepared to compensate Christopher Steele, the former M16 agent who created the Russian dossier if he continued his work. The reporting suggests that the FBI found, at least, parts of the dossier credible.

Feb. 16, 2017: In a press conference, Donald Trump calls an explosive story reported by The New York Times on the 14th “fake-news,” and a “joke.” Asked if anyone in his campaign had contacts with the Russian government, “No. Nobody that I know of.”

Feb. 15, 2017: A report from CNN finds that “high-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials tell CNN. President-elect Trump and then-President Barack Obama were both briefed on details of the extensive communications between suspected Russian operatives and people associated with the Trump campaign and the Trump business, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.”

Feb. 14, 2017: The New York Timesreportsthat “members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.”

Feb. 13, 2017: National Security Advisor Michael Flynnresignsfor, what the White House said, was Flynn’s misleading statements to the Vice President about his contacts with Russian officials.

Feb. 13, 2013:The Washington Post reportsthat then acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the White House in late January that Michael Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail based on his communications with the Russian ambassador.

Feb. 9, 2017: The Washington Post reportsthat Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russian ambassador during his phone calls with Sergey Kislyak. Both Flynn and the White House had previously denied these discussions.

Feb. 4, 2017: Trump makes a controversial statement in an interview with Bill O’Reily, in regard to Putin he states, “I do respect him.” As O’Reily presses Trump about the type of crimes Putin has committed, Trump responds: “What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

Jan. 13, 2017: In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump says that he is open to lifting sanctions on Russia. “If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?”

Jan. 11, 2017: A news conference is held at Trump Tower and Sean Spicer responds to the release of the dossier by Buzzfeed, calling it “highly salacious and flat-out false” and the reporting by CNN’s “a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks.”

Jan. 11, 2017: In a series of tweets, Trumpwrites: “Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is ‘A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.’ Very unfair! … Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING! … I win an election easily, a great “movement” is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state! … Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Jan. 10, 2017: Buzzfeed publishes a dossier complied by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Multiple news agencies were previously aware of the dossier, but had declined to run the document because of they had been unable to verify the allegations in the document. The dossier alleges that Trump associates colluded with Russian operatives and the Russian government. While still unverified, pieces of the dossier are checking out.

Jan. 10, 2017: In his confirmation hearing, Jeff Sessions testifies under oath, ““I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Jan. 10, 2017: In joint testimony before a Senate panel, FBI Director James Comey acknowledges that the RNC was also the target of Russian hackers, stating that there was “penetration on the Republican side of the aisle and old Republican National Committee domains.”

Jan. 6, 2017: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence releases a report with joint conclusions from the FBI, CIA, and NSA stating that “We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments. We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

Jan. 6, 2017: Clapper, FBI director James Comey and CIA director John Brennan brief Trump on the classified version of the report, including the conclusion of the agencies that Russian government interfered in the election to try and help him win.

Jan. 6, 2017: Trumpreleases a statementsaying the hacks had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election” and says that “Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying” to hack the government.

Dec. 30, 2016: Foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov recommends the expulsion of all U.S. diplomats from Russia, but Putin declines, earning praise from Trump. Trumpwrites on Twitter:“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!”

Dec. 29, 2016: Flynn begins a series of phone calls with Ambassador Kislyak. He later admits it is possible they discussed the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, but can’t remember at the time.

Dec. 26, 2016: Oleg Erovinkin, the former KBG officer who is believed to have helped Christopher Steele compile the dossier is found dead in the back seat of his car in Moscow.

Dec. 8, 2016: Carter Page, a former Trump advisor, is seen in Moscow. According to reports from The New York Times, Page stated to a Russian state-run news agency that he was in Moscow to meet with “business leaders and thought leaders.” Later, reports would show that the Trump campaign paid for Page’s travel to Moscow.

Nov. 3, 2016:Dmitry Rybolovlev’s, a Russian billionaire known as the “fertilizer king,” and Donald Trump ended up on the same tarmac in Concord. The two claim to have never met, despite participating in the largest real-estate deal in American history that netted Trump 60 million dollars. Rybolovlev is a shareholder in the Bank of Cypress. The largest American shareholder in that bank is Wilbur Ross, the new Secretary of Commerce appointed by Donald Trump. The bank is a favorite for Russian oligarch to hide their money, according to the reporting of Rachel Maddow with MSNBC.

Oct 30, 2016: Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev’s jet was on the ground at the same location with Trump’s jet in Las Vegas, NV outside of a campaign rally. Both camps claim it was a coincidence, and that they didn’t speak.

Oct. 9, 2016: Trump brings up Russia during the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, stating “She doesn’t know if it’s the Russians doing the hacking,” Trump responds. “Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia because they think they’re trying to tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia. I know — I know about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. I don’t deal there. I have no businesses there. I have no loans from Russia.”

Oct 4, 2016: Julian Assange makes a video announcement stating that WikiLeaks will dump information on the presidential election very week for the next 10 weeks.”

Oct 3, 2016: Roger Stone, aid to the Trump campaign, writes on Twitter “I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp”

Sept. 26, 2016: Carter Page steps down as the policy advisor to the Trump campaign

Sept 26, 2016: At the first presidential debate, Trump states, “I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?

Sept 5, 2016: The Washington Postreportsthat U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating “a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions.”

Aug. 21, 2016: Roger Stonewrites on Twitter: “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary”

Aug. 19, 2016: The Financial Timesreports on Manfort’s ties to Russian intelligence, including a Russian citizen named Konstantin Kilimnik, an army trained linguist with a background in Russian military intelligence.

Aug. 17, 2016: Trump receives his first classified intelligence briefing, which included information about the direct links between the Russian government and the email hacks, according to NBC reports.

Aug. 17, 2016: Trump hires KellyAnne Conway and Steve Bannon.

Aug. 14, 2016: The New York Times reports a secret ledger showing 12.7 million in cash paid to Paul Manafort by the Russian-backed Party of Regions.

Aug. 12, 2016: Guccifer 2.0releases the cellphone numbers and email addresses of almost all of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, stolen from the DCCC.

July 27, 2016: During a campaign rally, Trump calls on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, “I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at a news conference. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

July 26, 2016: Officials in the intelligence communityinformthe White House they have “high confidence” that Russia is behind the DNC hacks.

July 26, 2016: The FBI announces it is conducting an investigation into the DNC hacks and says that it believes the Russian government breached the DNC in a deliberate attempt to influence the presidential election.

July 24, 2016: DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns following the release of emails from WikiLeaks.

July 22-July18, 2016: During the Republican National Convention, Carter Page, J.D. Gordon and Walid Phares meet with Russian Ambassador Kislyak in Cleveland, telling him that they wanted to improve relations with Russia.

July 22, 2016: WikiLeaks dumps its first batch of emails, implicating the DNC leadership’s preference for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders

July 20, 2016: Jeff Sessions, one of the first mainstream Republicans to endorse Trump, meets with Russian Ambassador Kislyak at a Republican National Convention event. Other ambassadors were present at the meeting.

July 18, 2016: Despite the Trump campaign being hands-off in the Republican Party platform for most other aspects, the campaign insisted on plank in the platform, adopting the following language, “following language on Ukraine: “We support maintaining and, if warranted, increasing sanctions, together with our allies, against Russia unless and until Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are fully restored. We also support providing appropriate assistance to the armed forces of Ukraine and greater coordination with NATO defense planning. … We will not accept any territorial change in Eastern Europe imposed by force, in Ukraine, Georgia, or elsewhere, and will use all appropriate constitutional measures to bring to justice the practitioners of aggression and assassination.”

July 18, 2016: The Washington Post reported: “The Trump campaign worked behind the scenes last week to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces, contradicting the view of almost all Republican foreign policy leaders in Washington.”

July 7, 2016: Carter Page speaks at an event in Moscow, criticizing Western democracies, stating “Washington and other Western powers have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change,” Pagesaid. During that event, Page also criticized U.S. sanctions against Russia.

June 15, 2016: Guccifer 2.0 posts stolen documents from the DNC online. The documents included the DNC’s strategy against the Trump team.

June 14, 2016: The DNC announces it has been the victim of a Russian hack.

May 18, 2016: Former DNI Director James Clapper admits during an event that there are “some indications”of cyberattacks aimed at the presidential campaigns.

May 4, 2016- Sept. 23,2016: The servers of the Russian Alfa Bankrepeatedly looked up the IP address of a particular Trump Organization computer server in Trump Tower. Alfa Bank looked up the address to the corporate server 2,820 times – more lookups than the Trump server received from any other source.

March 22, 2016: A staffer for the Clinton campaign receives an email telling him to change his password. Unknowingly, he gives Russian hackers access to his computer.

Sept. 2016: An FBI agent calls the tech-support at the DNC and informs them that they may have been hacked. The contractor who answers the phone isn’t sure that the call is legitimate and never passes along the information.

2013: Putin awards Rex Tilleron the Order of Friendship, the highest civilian honor awarded in Russia.

June 2012: Vladmir Putin and Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson meet at the signing of an oil contract with Russia state oil company Rosneft for an oil deal. The joint drilling contract, worth 500 billion dollars, is later blocked by U.S. backed sanctions against Russia on October 10, 2014.

Sept. 15, 2006: Donald Trump Jr. says at a real estate conference in Manhattan, that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets…We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

2008: Donald Trump Jr. visits Moscow six times in 18 months looking for new deals, but is ultimately unsuccessful.

2007–2008: Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney, assists dozens of Russian buyers in purchasing apartmentsin Trump properties, according to Sergei Millian, a Russian émigré who served as a broker between Russian buyers and Trump. According to Millian, the Trump Organization received “hundreds of millions of dollars” through deals with Russian businessmen.

2005: Trump signsa one-year deal with Bayrock to look at the idea of building Trump Tower in Moscow. Bayrock Group finds a site, but the deal dies.

Early 2000s: In his search for cash, Trump finds a small company called the Bayrock Group. Run by Russian immigrants the company becomes known for its ties to the Russian mafia and is headquartered in Trump Tower. The Trump Organization and the Bayrock Group begin a partnership and develop commercial properties in Florida, Arizona, and New York, including Trump SoHo.

1998: Deutsche Bank loans Trump $125 million to renovate 40 Wall Street. Deutsche Bank would ultimately underwrite $1.3 billion in loans to Trump entities over the next few years.

1995: Trump declares a$916 million loss on his income tax returns – the bank’s loss that a tax loophole allows his business to write off, but not without taking a toll on his creditworthiness, and most bankers on Wall Street become “unwilling to lend him money due to what they termed ‘the Donald risk.’” He turns to two sources: Deutsche Bank and Bayrock Group.